1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to paintball guns and, more particularly to novel systems and methods for feeding propellant and ammunition.
2. The Background Art
Paintball tag or combat has become a recreational activity favored by many players old and young. Paintball guns launch projectiles made of biodegradable, gelatinous shells surrounding a powder or paint content. Guns are carried in a manner similar to actual weapons, but typically cannot be fired as such.
Conventional paintball guns often operate similar to a fire hose. That is, so long as a trigger mechanism is engaged, by a user, a stream of balls is fed from a large hopper into the barrel of the gun. Meanwhile, a rather unwieldy canister containing compressed gas is carried on a belt, pack, or the like, by a user, to be released in a stream by a trigger. Accordingly, paintball guns appear to operate more like hoses than guns. Very little control is available over the expenditure of paintballs and compressed gas. Moreover, accuracy, conservation of ammunition, handling, and the like, are not similar to the same functions for conventional weapons. Moreover, the segregation of the gas supply and launcher (gun) tends to interfere with the overall sense of balance, operation, utility, aiming, and the like for paintball weapons.
What is needed is a paintball gun designed to look, feel, weigh, and operate very similarly to an actual weapon. Thus, integration of a gas supply within a weapon, making ammunition clips reloadable and exchangeable in a reasonable size, triggering, maximum loads, and so forth are all objectives to be met by a paintball gun suitable for replicating or approaching actual weapons.
Mechanisms for operating paintball guns may be designed in a variety of ways. One may design a lock or action of a gun to use gas from a compressed gas source to discharge projectiles. Another quantity of the same compressed gas may be used to actuate a firing mechanism, returning a trigger and actuation system to a ready-to-fire position.
One may also use a trigger mechanism to actuate multiple mechanisms. A trigger may actuate a valving system controlling and directing the flow of compressed gas as a propellant. Similarly, a gun trigger may provide catching and releasing a feed mechanism for paintballs.
What is needed is a mechanism for providing a firing bolt. The firing bolt should simultaneously control delivery of gas, including any porting, discharge, sealing, and the like, while also loading a projectile into a barrel for firing. It would be an advance in the art if a mechanism could be designed such that upon firing, a bolt automatically returns to a ready-to-fire position by virtue of a return mechanism other than consumption of additional compressed propellant.
It would be a further advance in the art to provide a gun trigger with a function requiring only selected catching and releasing of such a firing bolt. In such a mechanism, compressed propellant (e.g. gas) could be used for the single purpose of firing the projectile, with loading occurring automatically as part of the sequence. Thus, the entire mechanical workings of a gun may be greatly simplified while the efficiency of use of compressed propellant would require smaller containers therefor.
It would be a major advance in the art to combine an ammunition magazine in a single xe2x80x9cclip.xe2x80x9d Prior art systems contain a plumbing apparatus for storing compressed propellant and delivering it to a launcher (e.g. gun), operating much like a hose or piping system.
Meanwhile, massive hoppers drain a seemingly unending stream of paintballs into the flow path of the gas, launching them like so many beads in a chain. It would be a substantial advance in the art to provide a gun having sufficiently small requirements for propellant that a compact canister of propellant could be carried and maintained within the envelope typically associated with a conventional gun magazine. Moreover, it would be a major advance in the art to combine a clip of projectiles and compressed propellant into a single magazine, providing for quick reloading of the entire magazine with a single set of coordinated motions. Thus, having a clip or magazine containing both propellant and projectiles would be more nearly replicate the experience of loading and firing a conventional weapon. Thus, such an improved device may be most beneficial in training and simulation for law enforcement agencies.
In view of the foregoing, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for launching projectiles using a compressed gas as a propellant, the entire apparatus being sized and operable consistent with conventional guns.
It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method in which an integrated magazine and gun are provided within the envelope conventionally associated with actual guns.
It is an object of the invention to provide a simplified trigger actuation apparatus and method tending to operate a gun in a manner consistent with conventional guns.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a ready mechanism for replacing magazines.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a magazine that integrates propellant and projectiles in a unit that can be handled by a user in a manner consistent with conventional guns.
It is an object of the invention to provide careful control of gas discharge from a propellant reservoir in order to reduce the requirements for propellant, and thus reduce the size of a propellant source required for an apparatus and method in accordance with the invention.
Consistent with the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the invention as embodied and broadly described herein, an apparatus and method are disclosed, in suitable detail to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. In certain embodiments an apparatus and method in accordance with the present invention may include a gun having a firing bolt. The firing bolt may be propelled down range within the gun by air pressure or other propellant from an air or gas chamber.
A catch may hold the firing bolt against moving, thus locking the bolt into a ready-to-fire position until activated by a trigger. In certain embodiments, a bolt catch may engage a matched portion of a firing bolt to lock a bolt in place. Upon actuation of a trigger, the firing bolt disengages from the catch, freeing the bolt to travel down range as a firing mechanism of the gun. Also, upon movement of the bolt forward, a valving mechanism associated with the bolt releases gas urging the bolt forward, the gas passing through the bolt and into the barrel of a gun, accelerating a projectile (e.g. paintball) down the barrel.
In certain embodiments, a system of springs and catches returns the bolt and trigger mechanisms to their original, ready-to-fire positions. In certain embodiments, an ammunition magazine may contain a canister or cartridge holding compressed gas or other propellant (e.g. liquid, saturated liquid, or gas) maintained under pressure for propelling projectiles from the gun. In certain embodiments, a magazine may be removable from the gun without discharging remaining propellant from the storage cartridge.
In alternative embodiments, the magazine may be designed to operate as a single, monolithic unit, yet to be separable between the propellant and the projectiles. For example, a carbon dioxide cartridge may be used, and will typically contain 12 grams of carbon dioxide. About 25-30 rounds of ammunition may be fired with 12 grams of carbon dioxide. However, a magazine for a pistol is usually stored in the handle of the gun. In such a configuration, space constraints may limit a magazine to approximately 10 rounds of projectiles. In order to effectively use all of the available propellant, a user may remove the magazine and reload the projectiles approximately three times for each reloading of a propellant cartridge. In one embodiment, the entire magazine may be retrieved from the gun and the propellant may automatically seal.
However, a change in air pressure may result in a chill inside the gun. That is, rapidly expanding gases left behind within the gun, may chill seals, or condense vapors, resulting in failure of operations of a gun. Stable thermodynamics may be achieved by minimizing the number of pressure drops to which the various chambers of a gun may be exposed. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the magazine may be handled as a unit, but the projectile magazine may be separated at will. Accordingly, the propellant portion and the ammunition portions may be loaded together, but one portion of the load (e.g. projectiles, propellant) may be loaded while leaving the other unmolested.
In certain embodiments, an apparatus (gun) may have a frame, an action (the lock), a magazine, a trigger assembly, a barrel, and the like. The gun may be made in several pieces, which may be sealed together as necessary, and removably sealed as prudent. An air chamber may provide a cavity for holding a charge of propellant (e.g. carbon dioxide, air, etc.). Ammunition may feed into a chamber to be launched down a barrel of the gun.
Suitable seals and actuators may seal a bolt in various positions, with the propellant advancing the bolt, upon actuation by a trigger, and the bolt releasing suitable quantities of propellant in order to launch the projectiles. The bolt may be driven by propellant forward, and backward. However, in certain embodiments, the bolt may be driven forward by propellant, but returned by a spring storing part of the energy of actuation of the bolt.
A magazine may include a receiver for holding a canister of propellant as a source of energy for launching projectiles. The propellant canister may be resealable by a valving system, thus tolerating removal without losing the charge of propellant in the canister. A series of valves, poppets, seals, springs, and the like, as well as a network of passages, may guide propellant gases from a magazine to the action of the gun. In certain embodiments, a head seal and tail seal may seal the valving portion or rod associated with a bolt.
Meanwhile, a trigger may actuate the bolt, launching both the bolt and its valving mechanism for a brief excursion into the chamber of the gun. As the bolt moves forward, the valving mechanism can shut off any further flow, thus discharging a limited amount of propellant with each shot. The trigger mechanism may include a simple release, but may include a comparatively sophisticated sear and latching mechanism for retaining the bolt in a ready-to-fire position. The sear may be selectively released by a trigger actuated by a user. Various spring mechanisms may return the sear to a ready-to-fire position, capturing the bolt upon return of the bolt from a fired position.